


After

by Way_too_involved



Series: Langst Prompts [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Post-Season/Series 06, Protective Shiro (Voltron), Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), The much needed convo after the season finale, This could be taken platonically too btw, people address some important shit, shklance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-25 03:27:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14968115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Way_too_involved/pseuds/Way_too_involved
Summary: Keith and Shiro having a much needed discussion with Lance about his death.((Will contain S6 Spoilers))





	After

Saying the last couple days were hectic would be the understatement of the year.

All the castle’s ex-members, plus Romelle and Krolia, were sitting around the fire telling stories and trying to catch up and, in Romelle’s case, get to know their new friends. Keith and his mother told the story of the two years they spent alone while the team began about their scattered missions here and there to help Lotor’s rise to power, something they obviously feel guilty about now.

Hunk was telling the story with so much enthusiasm, his hands waving animatedly trying to get in every detail before Pidge interrupted him to give her own in. Allura was sitting next Coran with her head rested on his shoulders, a fond smile curving her lips as she looked at her paladins relishing in the fact that they were all here around her.

“And so we were fixing the shields in our lions, okay?, Shiro, clone of course, and Pidge were trying to give us the power to reset the system but then the power cuts and like the shield breaks and Lance just fucking stopped responding and Allura leaves her lion!  Everything wasn’t working! But Pidge pulls through at the end and I activate another special ability for Yellow and I push the piece back to its place…”

As everyone was telling their stories, Shiro was the only one allowed to ask questions. He told them that he saw everything but he couldn’t say anything due to the weakness of the connection, this resulted in a few questions piling up for answers.

He sat with his back leaning against Black’s paw with Keith and Lance on both his sides; they wanted to be as close as possible after learning he was technically dead for the past few months, years in Keith’s case. Keith’s head rested on Shiro’s shoulder, mirroring Allura and Coran, and Lance had his hands intertwined with Shiro. None of them thought much of this newfound closeness and blamed it on circumstance. They hopefully had enough time to figure everything out later.

“Wait I don’t get one part of that story.” Shiro informed hesitantly. “You said that Lance stopped responding for no reason and that Allura left her lion, Why? In the astral plane I saw Red’s presence completely disappear… What happened?”

As he was finishing his question, he was looking between Allura and Lance. He knew Lance might act reckless but not Allura. Leaving her lion in the middle of a mission like that, especially with a deadly radiation beam targeted at their location, was so un-like her.

“Oh. Um… Lance wa-“

Allura started but was cut off by Lance. “Nothing I just did a bad move.”

“I don’t believe that. Lance, I’ve seen all you guys’ bad moves, it wasn’t like this. Red’s connection disappeared.” Shiro’s eyebrows creased looking at Lance. Shiro was getting a bad feeling about this.

“It was a really bad move.” Lance said sheepishly.

“Lance what happened?” Shiro straightened and decided to turn to Allura for answers. “Princess, what happened?”

“There was beam.”

“Yeah I know that part, what happened?”

Allura eyed Lance apologetically before going forward with what happened, her eyes focused on a small spot of dirt in front of her.

“After Shi… the clone cut the power, a bolt or a beam shot from the crack we had just wielded together. It was coming straight at me and I didn’t notice it or I froze, I don’t remember everything happened so fast, Lance did though.”

Shiro caught the sight of the few tears that were falling down Allura’s face.

“He pushed me out of the way and got caught at the receiving end, instead of me. Red disappeared from the astral plane because Lance had… he didn’t survive the bolt. I went out of Blue to him to see what happened.”

“Did you do to him what you just did to the Black Paladin?” Surprisingly Krolia asked, as everyone else seemed frozen.

“No… I couldn’t” Allura looked like every word was more painful than the other and Shiro didn’t blame her at the slightest. The mere thought of one of them dying was enough to make him lightheaded. And for some reason, it always seemed to be Lance.

“Pieces of Shiro’s soul were left preserved in Black, by Black, while Lance’s was completely gone. I… I transferred to him some of mine and Red’s life force to bring him back.”

The shock of the news was unlike anything else. A few hours ago, when Keith told them of Shiro’s situation, he had quickly added in the fact that there was hope straight away. But now, hearing this, Shiro realised that if Allura was even a few minutes late, his body would’ve turned cold and it would’ve been too late and Lance would have actually died.

“He… died?” Hunk’s voice was too small and quiet in contrast with a few minutes ago.

Hunk’s reaction must’ve set off something in Lance as he stood up and ran off to Red.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?! That was not the kind of information you keep to yourself. How do you think he was feeling all the time after that incident, huh?!”

Keith was practically fuming. The last time Shiro had seen him this angry was years ago when he would get into fights at Garrison. Later, after many anger management classes they had found out that he was always defending himself or standing up for what he thought was right, meaning he was incredibly observant and sometimes too sensitive. He figured out how people would think in certain situations, especially when it was in a negative light.

Keith bolted to Red’s direction, in Lance’s direction. Shiro looked at Allura and noticed the utter resignation and guilt in her eyes.

“Keith just feels bad that he wasn’t there for any of it. Hell, I feel that way too.” He stood up and put a hand on Allura’s shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting manner. “It’s just Hunk and Pidge’s reaction showed that they didn’t know but on the other hand, Lance must’ve clearly thought no one cared about him… dying.”

He hated that word when describing Lance. The Cuban always seemed so alive and present that thinking of him in any way less than that seemed wrong. Hunk and Pidge were holding each other talking about possible way to make it up to their friend. He frowned as he heard something about them making fun of Lance and how they probably made shit worse.

As he reached Red, who purred in his mind welcoming him back to the land of the living, he made his way towards the cockpit to find Lance sitting in the corner with his knees held in a death grip toward his chest as if to protect himself from them. He noticed the tear tracks on Lance’s face and the slight tremble that seemed to overtake his entire being. Keith was next to him speaking softly and rubbing his back calming him from the obvious panic attack he just had.

Shiro wasn’t yet noticed, so he walked closer and gently tapped Keith’s shoulder to motion him to give him some space to sit closer to Lance. He kneeled down and wrapped an arm around the crying boy’s shoulder and nuzzled him under his chin.

After about 20 minutes Lance had finally calmed down enough to break the silence.

“I am so sorry for overreacting. God I’m so stu-“

“Don’t say that.” Shiro peeled Lance from him and moved him further away to get a better look at his face. “You died. You had all the right to freak out, to cry and be angry.”

“But you didn’t do all those things... I was dead for a few minutes and I was brought back straight away and everything was well. It makes sense they didn’t know; I didn’t tell them.”

“Why didn’t you, by the way?” Keith was sitting next to Lance supporting him from a distance. “I mean, you usually don’t keep your mouth shut and shake everything with Hunk.”

Lance frowned a bit at Keith’s comment but didn’t say anything about it; he seems to be gathering his thoughts trying to sort them out.

“I didn’t want to bother anyone. Besides, everyone was busy with something. Pidge and Hunk had all these projects and updates they were working on. Allura and Lotor were building that ship and Coran was busy keeping us all sane through it all. I genuinely thought Allura told Coran or Hunk.”

“Why would they not have addressed it with you then? Hunk is your best friend, he loves you and don’t you think you dying for even a few minutes would have upset him?” Shiro was trying to understand Lance’s point of view.

“I am a set back to the team. They probably didn’t care enough.”

And, God, he said it like it was one of the known facts of the universe. Like Shiro and Keith were crazy to think otherwise. This was situation was beyond bad in Shiro’s books. That clone had rooted into Lance these thoughts that brought out crippling insecurities that right now seemed to run so deep within Lance. It was breaking his heart.

“Lance. Look at me for a second. You will not be bothering anyone if you told them you died for a few minutes.” Keith brought his hand under Lance’s chin and moved it toward him so he could look at him properly. “Your feelings about this are one hundred percent valid. You were sacred and confused and lost, rightfully so, and you expected them to help you. But you shouldn’t have assumed they did care. They do very, very much.”

“Dying, even for a few minutes, is hard. Do you remember it well?” Shiro asked lance gently.

“Vividly.” Lance whispered.

“All the more reasons why you needed someone to help you through this. Lance, I promise you I will never leave you to go through this alone, never again.”

“But you-“

“Don’t underestimate your pain by comparing it to mine. Yes what I went through was bad, but so did you. Going through all this time thinking your team didn’t care is kind of worse, isn’t it?”

Lance looked down as he fidgeted with his fingers, he didn’t seem to believe them, not entirely.

“I am so sorry for leaving you, Lance, for leaving all of you. I found my mom and we got carried away when all our information seemed to click together and we just kept going and-“

“I don’t blame you. I never did. Yeah, I was angry you left, but once I saw that you brought your mom I was happy for you. I still am. You brought Shiro home too. I don’t have any reason to be angry… I am not.”

Shiro hated how Lance always turns the tables and comforts them when they are here to comfort him. He has been doing this for too long that he became naturally good at it, and it made him sick that no one noticed how Lance was never comforted, not truly at least. He seemed to always have this doubt-ness that made itself visible whenever Lance was at his limit; when he couldn’t hide anymore.

“We will be here to always remind you of your importance and how much your opinions and thoughts matter. Never think for one second that just because someone had it worse at some point that it cancels out your hurt.” Shiro spoke clearly and slowly. He meant every word and wanted them to reside in Lance’s brain for future reference.

What Lance feels isn’t something that can be cancelled by a few words. It needs time. And he and Keith are willing to give Lance that time as he was sure the rest of the team too. They wronged him and now, finally, Lance is starting to realize that. He needs to know that there are certain actions you shouldn’t leave unattended to.

**Author's Note:**

> This season fucking destroyed me :)  
> dont forget to leave a comment.  
> If you have any questions/prompts please drop an Ask @no-i-didnt-notice-im-short


End file.
